The ACA is dead — long live Obamacare

Obamacare supporters are mistaken if they think the Supreme Court’s King v. Burwell ruling settles the issue. Even in defeat, King threatens Obamacare’s survival, because it exposes Obamacare as an illegitimate law.

Say what you will about the Affordable Care Act. Democrats passed it in haste. In desperation. Without knowing what was in it. With no bipartisan support. By one vote. In the dead of night. Over public opposition. Using lies. With disdain for “the stupidity of the American voter.” Still, barring some constitutional defect, the ACA as enacted was the law of the land.

Yet President Obama and the Supreme Court now have amended the ACA to the point where it has been transformed into something no Congress ever enacted — indeed that no Congress ever had the votes to enact. The executive and the judiciary have effectively repealed the ACA and replaced it with “Obamacare,” which enjoys no such legitimacy.